Russia, Belarus won't be invited to '24 Olympics, but their athletes can compete

July 13 (UPI) -- Russia and Belarus won't be invited to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, but athletes from the two nations will be allowed to compete, the International Olympic Committee said Thursday.

Official invitations for the other 203 participating nations will be sent out at the end of July.

Earlier this year, the IOC Ethics Committee issued recommendations that athletes from Russia and Belarus be allowed to compete as "neutral athletes" who "in no way represent their state or any other organization in their country."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously denounced IOC decisions that allowed Russian athletes to compete.

"The International Olympic Committee's attempt to get Russian athletes back to compete and participate in the Olympics is an attempt to tell the world that terror can allegedly be something acceptable," Zelensky said in January.

In February, IOC President Thomas Bach defended the organization's position.

"It is not up to governments to decide who can take part in which sports competition," Bach said.

At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Russian athletes had to compete without using their national symbols or having their national anthem play. The ban was imposed in 2017 in response to Russia's state-sponsored doping program, which came to light in 2014.

The 2024 Paris Olympics will be the fifth Olympics competition in which Russia has been barred from displaying national symbols.